Antiques Road Show, FYI

Blind Justice: A weekly report: Week 4

Love in the Driest Season: A Family Memoir: A Brief Review

I subscribed to DearReader.com, which has a bimonthly feature that lets you hear a chapter of an audio book. I enjoyed a selection from Love in the Driest Season, and Amber at DearReader graciously donated the book and abridged version on CD to me. I understand that the author, Neely Tucker, who reads his book himself, now works for the Washington Post. I donated the book after reading it to the Lafayette Parish Public Library.

Interview on Hawaii Public Radio Show

Last night, Thursday, March 24, I called Hawaii. I learned via email that my podcasts were being enjoyed by a Larry Geller of Hawaii Public Radio. He invited me to call the Town Square Show which was featuring podcasters. So I did and was heard live in paradise. Click here to learn more.

--Text by David Faucheux

Millions and billions by the book: Secrets of the wealthy

My blog ended with me expressing the thought that a Trump bio would be a fascinating read. I felt that Trump: How to Get Rich was somehow disappointing, that it promised more than it delivered in actual advice or rules. The lifestyle, however, would be interesting for a year. Just think--the food, the clothes, and seeing what life behind the platinum curtain is really like.

Of Audio-Bloggers, Celebrities, and Living Wills

"Blind Justice," Episode Three: Time for blind actor?

This episode was interesting. Smell was used to help break a case. I was glad to see that Jim's wife, who had packed a bag and left the apartment in the last episode, was there to receive the flowers he had brought her by way of apology. She remembered how long it had been since the last gift of flowers. Women remember these things. Infidelity was the theme of this episode: Mary Beth's to her policeman husband, Eric's to his partner, Jim's to his wife ... Perhaps, a blind actor could have played the role of Jim?

St. Patrick's Day: Reflections

Note: This post was delayed because of technical difficulties.

"Blind Justice": A weekly report, perhaps?

Views were mostly positive concerning the new ABC cop series. I did come across several dog guide users who thought leaving a valuable guide dog in the squad car was not appropriate. One thought the choice of job for Dunbar was a bit extreme. Perhaps, we could have had a blind massage therapist who does PI on the side? Check out my blog for more thoughts.

Another perspective: Does Blind Justice Do Justice to the Blind?

Podcasts for the blind--and an e-book podcast

Blind listeners may want to check out:

--The new podcasting page from Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL)--full of tips on everything from blogs to Google searching.

--The podcasting page for Blind Chance, David Faucheux's Audio Blog, the one you're visiting right now.

Podcasting lets you automatically download the audio segments from the programs whom you want to hear--it's like customized radio. Click here for more information.

For information on e-books, check out the podcasting page for TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home.

Often podcasting pages contain not just audio links but also informative text. Enjoy!

The Ornament of the World: A semi-book review

They did toleration better than most!

A Shortcut through Time: A book review

A SHORTCUT THROUGH TIME:
A Book Review
RC 57444

This book has my brain orbiting somewhere around Pluto; hope you understand the dance of the quanta particles better than I did.

Michael Farquhar: Part III

Michael Farquhar: Part II

History for Everyone: Interview with best-selling author Michael Farquhar, Part I

"Kenny G at Last--The Duet Album ": A review

"Our Kind of Soul": A review

Dan Rather: A journalist's last broadcast as anchor of CBS Evening News

Are the days of domination of the news by the Big Three networks (CBS, ABC, & NBC) over? In the past several months, we have seen the resignation of two network anchors. Does this leave more room for other networks such as Fox or CNN or even bloggers? Are bloggers journalists? Click the audio above and see. I consider myself in a gray area between journalist and magazine features writer.

David Faucheux's fan Down Under

Note: Gannett is still stonewalling as to why its newsies refuses to mention David Faucheux in the Lafayette Advertiser in Louisiana. Imagine. A blind podcaster in a small Southern city is getting recognition on the Audio Blogger home page and via Feedster--but not one word in print. Talk about cultural gaps between the press dinos and the rest of the world! It's not just David involved here. Just what might this say about the Gannett chain's coverage of the disabled? Meanwhile here's a note received from Lynette Reville, an Australian librarian, whom we thanked for her unsolicited recognition of Blind Chance. - David Rothman


Hello David, and David!

It was nice for me to get the email and the comment on the blog--thank you! I'm glad I could help spread your message a little further. When I put in the link to the article and your blog onto my blog it was because I found it inspiring, as well as informative. Today I wondered, in passing, where stories like yours were when I was doing my library studies. I have come across so many facets of librarianship in the few years since I graduated and started working that I can't believe didn't factor at all in my experience in library school; which is why I put the links on my blog and hope that other new (or interested) librarians will see them there.

I don't understand either why your local paper would repeatedly not write articles about you, David! My local paper probably would. I'd say forget about the local paper at the moment and see if they persist in not acknowledging your achievements once you are doing the rounds of international library conferences. I think it would be great to have you present your ideas about accessibility, and since I am not likely to go overseas anytime soon, you will have to work on getting to Australia. :)

All the best,
Lynette

http://nlrp.blogspot.com/

Blind Justice: A Review of ABC's New Series

Note: I had technical difficulties. I wanted to end by saying I wonder why the 1970s blind detective show I heard about differed from "Blind Justice."

Earth-Friendly Crafts for Kids

Gallows Hill: A book review

Smelling the Net

MyPODable after all: Blind woman already using Shuffle

Related: Can Everyone do the iPOD Shuffle? from the American Foundation for the Blind site. The answer, at least for the older iPOD, seems to be "Yes, for the most part."

Now, here's another question. Exactly how blind-friendly are iPodder and similar programs, and what about iTunes? Anyone know? I suspect that David Faucheux's bro would love to set David up to receive podcasts on the latter's desktop. And if iPodder and the rest are not blind friendly, the podcast community might well be willing to try to address the possible problem.

Also, on another topic, here's a reminder. iPodder-style software will not pick up text notes such as the clarification we immediately posted about podcasts being hearable on machines besides the iPod. Or at least the text isn't visible in the usual mode of iTunes, which I use to hear the final results.

Psst! You may want to pass the word on if you have a friend who listens via David's podcasts but does not keep up with the entire blog, of which text can be a part. Our RSS feeds offer full text from posts that include text--not all do. - David Rothman.

Comment from Greg Schwartz of Open Stacks on the missing text: "Of course, my solution to this problem is that any feed I subscribe to with IPodder, I also subscribe to with Bloglines. This has the added benefits of A) letting me know when to expect something new through iiPodder (knowledge which has led to me catching some errors in downloading that I would have missed otherwise) and B) of making the site visible within my blogroll on Open Stacks, so I can promote the audio content to which I listen."

iPOD: Not MyPOD

Clarification: Podcasts, of course, can be heard on machines besides iPODs. David Rothman, for example, listens on a Dell Optiplex desktop.

Reflections on blogging--and another David's musing on journalistic myopia

A few comments from The Other David: In his latest audio item, David Faucheux envies the smooth delivery of TV announcers. I don't know about all the tricks there. But David and others might be interested in knowing that National Public Radio, a favorite network of his, often edits both hosts and guests to make them sound more articulate. Check out an item in the Brand Autopsy blog--headlined The Dark Room Magic of NPR. It's based on an On the Media program that I heard myself, so I know that the blogged summary is accurate.

And speaking of the media: David's hometown newspaper did not carry a word about his appearance in LISNews or his chatcast even though I emailed the editors about both. This is not the first time that the Lafayette Daily Advertiser fell down on the job after being told of an obvious human interest story. If memory serves, it's Try Number Three.

The Gannett-owned Advertiser is not the New York Times in terms of a news threshold, and I remain puzzled why David's own hometown newspaper refuses to write about his accomplishments on the Web. Netphobia or blindphobia or just another instance of a tightwad media conglomerate that can't do local news right? Some months ago an Advertiser editor did promise me that she would assign a story, but nothing ever happened. How surrealistic that the Advertiser can run national copy from USA Today about MP3 fans tuning into podcasting, but not record my friend's triumphs in the newspaper's own city.

Hello, Advertiser? As of this week, David himself is now even podcasting. Why, by refusing to write about David, are you depriving local people of a chance to learn about David and enjoy his work? You and Gannett's top executives owe David an apology. Your company puts out its share of PR ballyhoo about corporate diversity in a racial context. So why not a syllable on David in his own hometown newspaper? Racial diversity is a laudable goal, but what about another minority, the millions of disabled Americans, a number likely to grow as the babybooms age and acquire their share of problems, including visually related ones? Not to mention all the families of the disabled who would appreciate the coverage. Simply put, ignoring the disabled is plain bad business, not just callous.

This media myopia is just one more reason why blogging is so valuable and why, despite AudioBlogger's lack of editing tools, David remains grateful for his chance to speak out.

In stark contrast to the Advertiser, Dean Beth M. Paskoff of the School of Library and Information Science at Louisiana State University gave David Faucheux's fellow graduates a nice heads-up about the LISNews item about him. Way to go, Dean! It's not as if Blind Chance has millions of visitors, this is like any other specialized blog, but, yes, it is drawing its share of attention, enjoys a steady stream of international traffic from places like Vietnam, and probably would fare still better if the local media gave David his due. If LSU's future librarians want to know about blogging in real life on library-related topics, the school just might want to invite David Faucheux to give a presentation. Along the way, Dean Paskoff, this would be an excellent chance to sensitize your young librarians and others to disability issues. Who knows, maybe David's hometown paper would then be just a little less blind to an obvious news story.

- David Rothman (speaking absolutely just for himself and not necessarily for David F)

Detail: I'm going to e-mail Tara Connell, Gannett's vice president of corporate communications, and see if her company can educate the myopic editors in Lafayette and ideally apply the lessons to newspapers in other communities. - D.R.

Handyman: A book review

David's now podcasting

Via the Feedburner service, we've just added an RSS feed that works with iPodder and probably other common podcast software. That means you can set up your system to check automatically for David Faucheux latest audio--and blend it in with other audio feeds of your choice. Thanks to Greg Schwartz of OpenStacks for the suggestion. David's podcast-friendly feed is http://feeds.feedburner.com/blindchanceaudio.

Related: Podcasting by Blind Chance, from OpenStacks. Hey, thanks again, Greg. I hope others will join you in spreading around David F's podcast info.

Of blind blogs, Louisiana humor and stirfried crickets: Chat with David Faucheux at 8 p.m. EST

Posted to TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home:

One of the library world's most heartfelt blogs--enlivened by wry Southern humor--comes from a man who cannot see his own words. My friend David Faucheux, a blind MLIS in Lafayette, Louisiana, who will do a chatcast at 8 p.m. EST tonight, has been posting to his Blind Chance audio blog since last spring. David is featured on the home page and FAQ page of Audio Blogger and has won recognition from Feedster as well. ALA President-Elect Michael Gorman may question the usefulness of blogging, but David Fauxcheux and his fans don't. Listen to David's new MP3 on stirfried crickets and other insect delights for an example of his work. Or if you want something more somber, hear David remember Nader, the yellow Labrador, his late guide dog. Time to think about helping blind people in your community start their own audio blogs to convey their experiences and needs? More at TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home.